Oprah Winfrey sat down with Charlie Rose and BFF Gayle King on Monday for her first interview on CBS This Morning.
The candid 13-minute conversation included a discussion about the miscalculations that the billionaire admits occurred after she decided to create her OWN network.
O admits, “The idea of creating a network was something that I wanted to do. Had I known that it was this difficult, I might have done something else. If I knew then what I know now, I might have made different choices. If I were writing a book about it, I could call the book ‘101 Mistakes.'”
The network has been struggling since start-up in January 2011 and the talk show host now admits she should have completed the final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show before flipping the OWN switch.
She explained, “It was like having the wedding before you were ready, and walking down the aisle saying, oooh, should we really be doing this?”
Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels warned her that she “had no idea” what she was getting herself into. She wholeheartedly agrees and admits that there have been days when she has been tempted to throw in the towel.
That said, she is actually feeling pretty upbeat about OWN’s prospects. Winfrey claims, “I’m a very driven person. I believe that I am here to fulfill a calling. That, because I am a female, who is African American, who has been so blessed in the world, there is never going to be a time to quit. I will die in the midst of doing what I love to do.”
In the short term she has decided to build programing in a more systematic way, working on just one day of the week until that is set and solid and then moving on to fill another day with shows that will be meaningful.
Last month Oprah cancelled the nightly talk show featuring Rosie O’Donnell and handed out pink slips to a third of her long-time Harpo Studio employees.
Watch Oprah’s full interview below:
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